Old SchoolFollow

I was looking around and I found something that I've been looking for for a while. There's a lot of newer Paladins on these boards, or Paladins that started when TBC came out.

Some of them might be wondering about the lack of itemization when leveling, or the weird stat placement of some of our early tier and Dungeon Set armor. Well it all makes sense when these were the talents that we had to choose from when the game came out.

(Not for the squeamish or faint of heart)

Consecration was talented up until TBC. It was moved into the Holy Tree and right where Aura Mastery is now is where Consecration was. Most tanks were able to pick it up that way, so the recommended tanking build included 11 points in holy to grab consecration.

At the very beginning, there was no Imp. HS, no mana returns on heals, no Righteous Fury there was a seal called Seal of Fury which increased melee threat when it was active, and holy threat on the target when it was judged. No Avenger's Shield. It was tough to be an effective tank back then.

Well they like to be consistent.

What's this 'Concentration' in Protection you're talking of? Did you mean 'Consecration'? Isn't that a core spell now?

And what's 'Devotion'? I'm either blind as a bat or there's no Devotion talent in Protection. In fact, I can't seem to find 'Devotion' in any talent tree.

Edited, Jan 29th 2008 10:04pm by Mazra

I've "quit" wow several times, but I've almost always played pallies.

The first time I played, there was little I could do but auto-attack, heal, and bubble when it was up. Bubble was up more often however, since you could use two bubbles on yourself back-to-back and then have to wait for both the BoP and personal bubble timers to bubble again.

After quitting and returning, Consecration was moved into the Holy Tree. I picked it up and actually started trying to tank things. Seal of Fury was a ***** to work with.. weak Holy Shield, weak Blessing of Sanctuary... weak blessings overall. Note their durations, 5 minutes. Kings was the "Capper" for Retribution!

I finished off this period with a short stint as a hunter up to 60 and then quit for a while since no server needed more than 2 (1 for each faction) end-game hunters at this point (exaggerated... but if you think it's hard to get a slot as a hunter now, thank your lucky stars for TBC changes).

When I returned the next time, TBC had been out for a short time.. long enough that the Horde levelling areas weren't flooded with BE Pallies anymore and Outland had settled down into the "everyday" thing it is now. I always preferred Horde, I only played Alliance for pallies... so I rolled a BE Pally and started levelling only to run into shock and awe!

Righteous Defense? What's that? WOW!! A PALLY TAUNT?!?

Where's Consecration on the talents tree? Woh! It's a trainable spell now, awesomeness.

Mana from heals? Seal of Fury isn't a seal anymore, and is actually useful? (+1 for the effects of the current Imp. Righteous Fury talent)

It was alot to take in. My favorite class from before had become what seems like an uber-god... especially when combined with the new TBC talents and abilities. I left my warrior behind at 60 thanks to the new Pally tanking abilities, and havn't even logged onto that realm in nearly a year.

The biggest nerf I noticed in that first little while? I couldn't bubble over and over anymore... although I think that may have been changed before the second time I left.

Heh, I leveled my first character to 60 on this tree :-P

Let's see if I can remember what I took... I KNOW I had 5/5 in Spiritual Focus... and I definitely went all the way Holy Shield and Repentence in Protection, so I must have had 5/5 in Shield Spec and Improved Seal of Justice...

OH! I remember now! Yeah, Seal of Justice was really fun to have for a little while; then dimishing returns were introduced and it became a HORRIBLE talent (yay, I have an increased chance of a non-controlled .5 second stun after the second time?). But I still took it for repentence, because, quite frankly, repentence was awesome as a ranged stun. I went with one-hand spec and reckoning as well. Pretty sure I blew some points on Improved Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Sanctuary as well.

Then I went back to Holy, and got Improved Holy Light, Illumination, and Divine Favor. I tossed my two remaining points into, of all things, improved blessing of wisdom.

Now, keep in mind, I was a very bad player back in the day, as this was my first character and I soloed the entire game. In fact, I didn't use the best part of Protection: AoE farming (granted, it was a lot tougher without consecration). I would take on two enemies at a time using holy shield and my shield spike... and that's how I leveled. I almost shot myself by the time I hit 60; in fact, I hit 60 and immediately rerolled a mage on a PvE server!

Ah, this definitely took me back. I do have an amazing PvP video of a rank 14 Paladin in full GM armor and weapon, that is before 1.8 and thus using this same tree. He is technically a protection paladin (went all the way to repentence), but he uses SoR and a two-handed sword. One of the best PvP videos I have seen, and great music too. Not sure if I could find it again, but I do have it on my pc from over 2 years ago :)

I remember the good old days playing my Warlock, back when Death Coil was on a 10 min cool down and didnt have a fear effect on it.

this was the tree before release, it went through a few changes through patches

I personally would love to be able to get Improved Devotion Aura on my prot pally. Unfortunately the prot tree is so bloated with 5-point talents that I don't have the spare points for it.

Aah ok, thanks. If the threat is good it actually sounds pretty ok. I love SoR a lot more by default though because it feels better to actually deal some extra damage too. Not that it helps a lot, but you know.. the FEEL.

Invisusira - seen some vids of her/him doing some pretty crazy !@#$. Only sports like 24 spell damage though (ring enchants), something like that, but has a Thunderfury.

Pre-BC I didn't even think of Prot tree at all, and I known for a fact I wasn't geared properly, lol. But on the flip side, I had a dial-up connection (good lord that sucked balls ...) and was Ret/Holy spec: only did 5/10-mans and tanked them out of sheer brute force (much like what was eluded to above). I think it made me a better tank having had the experience of doing things without a taunt and all these other nifty gadgets we have now.

I agree wholeheartedly. Sometimes I actually wish I could go back and experience it the "old way" again, particularly try and be an old skool Paly tank with proper gear and a good connection to try my hand at raid tanking.

Still trying to find a time to see the Onyxia fight, etc ...